Violent protests have erupted in multiple cities in Bangladesh after prominent youth leader Sharif Osman Hadi died at Singapore\u2019s General Hospital on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Hadi died from gunshot injuries sustained during an assassination attempt in Bangladesh\u2019s capital, Dhaka, last week.<\/p>\n
Here is what we know so far.<\/p>\n
Who was Sharif Osman Hadi?<\/h2>\n
Hadi, 32, was a prominent leader of Bangladesh\u2019s 2024 student-led uprising.<\/p>\n
He acted as a spokesperson for Inquilab Mancha, or \u201cPlatform for Revolution\u201d, and was planning to stand as a member of parliament for the Dhaka-8 constituency in the Bijoynagar area of the city in the upcoming elections, expected in February 2026.<\/p>\n
Hadi was also an outspoken critic of India, where Bangladesh\u2019s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled following the uprising last year, and its influence on domestic politics in Bangladesh.<\/p>\n Authorities in Singapore and Inqilab Mancha announced his death on Thursday.<\/p>\n He died in a hospital in Singapore, where he was receiving treatment after being wounded in an assassination attempt on December 12. He was shot in the head by two assailants on a motorcycle, which pulled up beside the battery-powered auto-rickshaw he was travelling in. He was rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.<\/p>\n Hadi was found to have suffered brain stem damage and was transferred from Dhaka to Singapore General Hospital\u2019s neurosurgical Intensive Care Unit (ICU) on December 15 for treatment.<\/p>\n \u201cDespite the best efforts of the doctors \u2026 Hadi succumbed to his injuries,\u201d Singapore\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Thursday.<\/p>\n In a Facebook post late on Thursday, Inqilab Mancha announced: \u201cIn the struggle against Indian hegemony, Allah has accepted the great revolutionary Osman Hadi as a martyr.\u201d<\/p>\n On Friday, groups of mourners began to assemble in the Shahbag neighbourhood in central Dhaka, awaiting Hadi\u2019s body, which was expected to arrive in the capital on Friday evening, Al Jazeera\u2019s Moudud Ahmmed Sujan reported from Dhaka.<\/p>\n On December 12, Bangladeshi police launched a hunt for the attackers who shot Hadi.<\/p>\n The country\u2019s counterterrorism unit, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) is also involved in this manhunt.<\/p>\n In a news release on December 13, the police released stills of CCTV footage of the incident, showing two key suspects. Police offered a reward of five million taka (about $42,000) for information leading to their arrest.<\/p>\n Both men in the CCTV stills are seen wearing black clothes and glasses. While one is wearing a black hoodie, the other is wearing a black dress shirt and a wristwatch.<\/p>\n Bangladeshi newspaper The Daily Star reported that the country\u2019s police and border guard have arrested at least 20 people linked to the incident so far, but the investigation is ongoing.<\/p>\n The country\u2019s interim government head, Muhammad Yunus, expressed his condolences and described Hadi\u2019s death as \u201can irreparable loss for the nation\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe country\u2019s march towards democracy cannot be halted through fear, terror, or bloodshed,\u201d he said in a televised speech on Thursday.<\/p>\n The government also announced special prayers at mosques after Friday prayers and a half-day of mourning on Saturday.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are deeply saddened by the death of Sharif Osman Hadi, spokesperson of Inqilab Manch and independent candidate for Dhaka-8 constituency,\u201d the acting chairman of the Bangladesh National Party (BNP), Tareq Rahman, wrote on Facebook.<\/p>\n In a news statement to local media reports, the National Citizen Party (NCP) said it was \u201cdeeply saddened\u201d by Hadi\u2019s death and expressed condolences to his family.<\/p>\n Following the news of Hadi\u2019s death, violent protests broke out in Dhaka and other parts of the country on Thursday and were continuing on Friday.<\/p>\n Protesters are demanding the resignation of the heads of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Law, accusing the authorities of failing to ensure Hadi\u2019s security. They also demand the return of the gunmen, who many believe have fled to India.<\/p>\n Reporting from Dhaka, Al Jazeera\u2019s Tanvir Chowdhury said: \u201cIt\u2019s mostly students, but also people from all walks of life, with some political party elements as well.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir main slogan is \u2018We want justice\u2019 for the killer of Osman Hadi.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re saying the gunman must be brought to justice as soon as possible, or they will continue to protest.\u201d<\/p>\n One group of protesters gathered outside the head office of the country\u2019s leading Bengali-language Prothom Alo daily, which they view as taking a pro-India editorial line, in Dhaka\u2019s Karwan Bazar area. They then surged into the building, according to online portals of various leading media outlets.<\/p>\n A few hundred metres (yards) away, another group of protesters pushed into the premises of the Daily Star, also viewed as pro-India, and set fire to the building.<\/p>\n The outlet reported that 28 journalists and staff members were trapped in the burning building for four hours.<\/p>\n Soldiers and paramilitary border guards were deployed outside the two buildings to monitor the situation, but did not immediately take any action to disperse the protesters.<\/p>\n Local media reported that protesters threw stones at the Assistant High Commission of India in Chittagong on Thursday.<\/p>\n In July 2024, students in Bangladesh took to the streets to protest against the conventional job quota system, under which jobs were reserved for descendants of Bangladesh\u2019s freedom fighters in 1971 and who are largely regarded as the political elite now.<\/p>\n Hasina ordered a brutal crackdown as the protests escalated. Before she was eventually ousted and fled to India, where she remains in exile, nearly 1,400 people were killed and more than 20,000 wounded, according to the country\u2019s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT).<\/p>\n In July this year, Al Jazeera\u2019s Investigative Unit obtained recorded evidence that the former Bangladesh leader had ordered police to use \u201clethal weapons\u201d against the protesters.<\/p>\n Last month, Hasina was convicted, in absentia, of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death by the tribunal in Dhaka. India has so far not agreed to send her back to Bangladesh to face justice.<\/p>\n In Dhaka on Friday, Al Jazeera\u2019s Chowdhury reported: \u201cThere\u2019s a strong anti-India sentiment in the crowd. They say India always meddles in Bangladesh\u2019s affairs, particularly right before the elections \u2013 and that former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been making provocative statements from India, where she is taking shelter.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, following Hadi\u2019s death, many Bangladeshis are sharing theories on the internet that the assailants have fled to India. Some politicians from youth parties have repeated these claims.<\/p>\n Local media quoted Sarjis Alam, a leader of the youth-led National Citizen Party (NCP), saying: \u201cThe interim government, until India returns assassins of Hadi Bhai, the Indian High Commission to Bangladesh will remain closed. Now or Never. We are in a war!\u201d<\/p>\n Nadim Hawlader, 32, from Dhaka\u2019s airport area and an activist of a Bangladesh Nationalist Party-affiliated volunteer organisation, told Al Jazeera that Hadi had been \u201cbrutally murdered\u201d to silence dissent.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have come to protest his killing and what we see as Indian aggression,\u201d Hawlader said.<\/p>\n He alleged that India had exerted undue influence over Bangladesh since 1971, and accused New Delhi of backing Sheikh Hasina\u2019s rule during the past 17 years, over which time, he claimed, political repression and killings took place.<\/p>\n Hawlader also alleged that the perpetrators had fled to India and said the protests would continue until \u201cSheikh Hasina and all those responsible for killings are returned\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Violent protests have erupted in multiple cities in Bangladesh after prominent youth leader Sharif Osman Hadi died at Singapore\u2019s General Hospital on Thursday. Hadi died from gunshot injuries sustained during an assassination attempt in Bangladesh\u2019s capital, Dhaka, last week. Here is what we know so far. Who was Sharif Osman Hadi? Hadi, 32, was a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-explained"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Bangladesh\"](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2025-12-19T101652Z_858124792_RC2LJIAQ29HC_RTRMADP_3_BANGLADESH-POLITICS-1766148234.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C514&quality=80\")
Where, when and how did Hadi die?<\/h2>\n
How have Bangladeshi authorities responded to the shooting?<\/h2>\n
How have Bangladeshi leaders reacted to Hadi\u2019s death?<\/h2>\n
How have protesters responded to his death?<\/h2>\n
![\"Protesters](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ap_694529ce705cb-1766140366.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80\")
![\"Dhaka](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2025-12-19T030047Z_2035413338_RC26JIAWJCLK_RTRMADP_3_BANGLADESH-POLITICS-1766141897.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80\")
What were the 2024 student protests in Bangladesh about?<\/h2>\n
Why has this stirred up anger towards India?<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"